National Action Plan against Substandard Housing

Host Country : France

Place and date : Paris , 27. - 28.9.2007

Peer countries : Belgium - Denmark - Latvia - Luxembourg - Malta - Romania

On the basis of the law on solidarity and urban renewal (2000), a national action programme to combat substandard housing has been set up since 2001. A "national interministerial centre for the struggle against substandard housing", manages and coordinates its implementation. The programme comprises several parts:

a legal part: the administrative policing powers, which had become obsolete, were reformed in order to restore their effectiveness. The public authorities can oblige owners to carry out essential work to ensure the safety and otherwise fit state of dwellings. The individuals' right to temporary or permanent re-housing was guaranteed.
an operational and financial part, comprising in particular:

Actions on the local level making it possible to accelerate the treatment of this unfit/unhealthy or dangerous housing based on works financed by the public authorities;
Higher subsidies to the owners (occupants and financial backers) to start the necessary work;
The relaunch of targeted expropriation measures in order to end substandard housing and to build social housing.

action plans: departmental or local action plans specify objectives, priorities and methodology within a framework which is common to the various institutional, social and associative partners.

The French programme combines targeting a precise problem with solutions bringing together diversified tools and actions carried out complementarily by the various actors involved. This modus operandi made it possible to increase the impact of the public action significantly.

The Peer Review of the French public policy for the eradication of substandard housing will contribute to existing achievements and debates within the European Union on the means of promoting the right to housing for all, and of guaranteeing that this right is actually implemented effectively. It falls within the context of the work undertaken by the European Parliament within the framework of regional development and cohesion, and of the draft European charter on housing developed by the Joint Parliamentary Group – "Urban housing".

Agenda - | en |

Peer Review manager

Ms Monika Natter ( ÖSB )

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National Action Plan against Substandard Housing

Host Country : France

Place and date : Paris , 27. - 28.9.2007

Peer countries : Belgium - Denmark - Latvia - Luxembourg - Malta - Romania

Peer Review manager

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